Secretive Smile
by Ever Winter Wood
Summary: Raven is an empath, meaning she can feel others' emotions... even when they sleep. What happens when one of her friend's emotions are full of guilt and terror during a nightmare?


Note: This _could_ be romance. It's all about interpretation. By the way, if you want, you can pretend it's Robin instead of Beast Boy. It really works either way.

Disclaimer: I do no own Teen Titans or River Lullaby (sung by Amy Grant in the Prince of Egypt movie).

Secretive Smile:

Raven furrowed her eyebrows, trying to ignore the thick emotions of her teammates' dreams as they slept on. As a half-demon, her endurance was much strong than any mere human's was, so she only slept a few hours in the early morning. The moonlight hours, however, was her own. The only Teen Titan who sometimes stayed up as late as herself was Robin, but not on this night. On this particular night, the Boy Wonder was lying in bed, alternating between mild nightmares of various villains and romantic dreams of his girlfriend, the pretty alien Starfire. Small strands of anger, fear, adoration, love, and lust were emanating from him, reaching Raven's empathetic senses, feeling like a delicate rope made of water, one that she could manipulate in any way she wished if she wanted to.

Cyborg, the Titan's very own half-mechanical man, didn't really have dreams. Instead, he would go over peaceful memories stored away in his overdrive, reliving them while his batteries recharged. The feelings that reached out of Raven from him were always static-y, like hearing them through an old radio, but instead she _felt _them. Still, the emotions were human, as Cyborg was human were it really counted—in mind and soul. Tonight she was reading amusement and fondness from him. Raven almost smiled, realizing he was probably dreaming about the things he would take for granted any other time, little quirks-and-perks to his teammates that seemed inconsequential or annoying until you really thought about your life without them. Of course, this being Raven, the half-demon who rarely showed any emotion aside from annoyance and poorly-concealed lonesomeness, she didn't smile. However, her usually stoic face softened a bit.

Next, Starfire, Titan's Tower's resident alien princess, was feeling what she normally felt—a glorious amount of joy for her dear friends and home. These emotions, although very strong and bold, were somewhat flat, and Raven could tell there was nothing more behind them than simple contentedness. Starfire rarely felt conflicting emotions, and so when she felt something, she felt it was _all_ of her being. The water-rope emotions twirled around her in a haphazard, giddy swirl, not exactly graceful, more like a child dancing with a ribbon. Yes, if there was one way to describe Starfire, it would be child-like. Innocent, yet startlingly wise, and practically incapable of feeling both sadness and happiness at once. It was either one or the other. Raven smoothed out her brow and stopped trying to push her friends' emotions away, instead choosing to just let them wash over her, silky and watery, rubbing against her skin soothing her almost as much as three-hours long meditation sessions did.

Finally, there was Beast Boy, the changeling. Raven waited with baited breath for the onslaught of his wild, layered emotions to bombard and confuse her as always, but instead she was hit with a most peculiar amount of… terror. And guilt, although for someone reason Raven could almost always feel guilt from Beast boy brushing against her mind gently. However, this time there seemed to be so much more than usual. Fear, guilt, agony, love, and pure _need_ was rolling off him like thick, pounding waves instead of stringy and delicate water-ropes. Confused and concerned, Raven floated down to the ground and uncrossed her legs, standing up. After a second of subtle stretching, she melted through the floor of her room, teleporting herself in front of Beast Boy's door. After a brief hesitation, she knocked lightly, calling out, "Beast Boy," in her normal monotone. There was no answer, but Raven could have sworn she heard whimpering. Almost frightened now, Raven knocked again, this time loud. When the changeling failed to respond for the second time she phased through the metal door, trying to ignore the cluttered, smelly mess that could barely be called a room. Raven looked at the bunk-bed Beast Boy had insisted he have, were said green boy was laying on the bottom one, trashing around and crying out. His eyes were squeezed shut, lips screwed over all of his teeth in what looked like a very painful manner, and claw-like nails digging into his sheets. The only part of his uniform he was wearing was the bottoms, with the shirt, gloves, and belt in a pile next to the bed for easy access.

Raven immediately understood what was going on—Beast Boy was having a nightmare, and a pretty intense one if she knew anything about them, which she did, seeing as how she got them almost every night when she finally feel asleep. Raven was about to leave when she sighed, knowing she couldn't just leave him here to suffer through the bad dream. She _would_ take it away, but then she would see what it was, and that would be the ultimate violation of trust and friendship. Based off of the emotions coming from Beast Boy, the dream was very personal, indeed. Raven walked forward with the intent of waking the boy up.

When she reached to bed, she bent over slightly raised her pale, slender arm to gently shake his shoulders. Then she froze. A crystal tear was falling from Beast Boy's closed right eye, sliding down his olive-green check and he flailed about in that wild grace only an animal could possess.

"No," he moaned, tossing his head to the side, "No! I couldn't… I should've… no, I'm sorry! Mom, dad, please! I'm sorry. No, stop… stop it… STOP!" The heart-wrenching, guilt-filled words brought Raven's arm to a stop, and almost without thinking she sank down onto the bed and grabbed Beast Boy by the shoulders, restraining his arms gently with her black magic. He fought against it, still dreaming something no one shoulder ever have to dream, but Raven just held on a little tighter and brought him to her chest, stroking his green hair. The only song her mother had ever sang to her was bouncing around in Raven's head, the song Arella had sang before she handed her daughter over the emotionless priests of Azar. Raven had been crying and screaming, wanted her mother, no matter how cold they both were. This time, Raven was going to sing to someone. Opening her mouth, she cleared her throat and dropped her monotone, revealing the pure, slightly husky voice beneath.

_Hush now, my baby  
Be still love, don't cry  
Sleep like you're rocked by the stream  
Sleep and remember  
My lullaby  
And I'll be with you when you dream._

_Drift on a river  
That flows through my arms  
Drift as I'm singing to you  
I see you smiling  
So peaceful and calm  
And holding you, I'm smiling, too  
Here in my arms  
Safe from all harm  
Holding you, I'm smiling, too._

Beast Boy slowly began to slow his fierce movements, listening to the beautiful, undiscovered voice of Raven. His lips began to form a small smile in his sleep, and he gave a contented sigh, smuggling closer to her warmth. Raven's lips twitched into a rare smile, his voice going smooth and clear as she continued to sing for him.

_Hush now, my baby  
Be still, love, don't cry  
Sleep like you're rocked by the stream  
Sleep and remember this river lullaby  
And I'll be with you when you dream._

_Here in my arms  
Safe from all arms  
Holding you, I'm smiling too  
Sleep and remember this river lullaby  
I'll be with you when you dream._

_Sleep and remember this river lullaby  
I'll be with you when you dream  
I'll be with you when you dream._

Beast Boy gave one last twitch before sinking into a deep, soothing sleep, his emotions those of peace and muted happiness. Raven held him closer for a few minutes before gently lowering down on his pillow, smoothing his hair down on his head. She stood up and took one step towards the door before pausing, whipping around, and pressing a tender kiss to the sleeping boy's forehead. Check's flushing a light pink, the empath whirled back and strode out the door, heading towards her room, a small, secretive smile on her face.

Unbeknownst to her, a certain green changeling was lying in his bed, the exact same smile on his own dreaming face.


End file.
